Supreme Magus novel Chapter 4412

Chapter 4412: Primordial Dread (Part 2)

The Maiden experienced the desperation and hunger that had led Ahote and her tribemates to feed on the corpses of their kin to survive the seemingly never-ending winter as if it were her own.

She relived all those memories at the same time, and not as Baba Yaga, the powerful white core she was now.

When the visions Zero stirred from Baba Yaga’s primordial fear of cold and fueled by her worst experiences assaulted her psyche, she was back to being a young Odi woman.

A young Odi woman with considerable magical talent, but with a weak dormant mana core who had no idea how to survive in the wilds. Now Baba Yaga was strong enough to light a fire that could melt a mountain, but there was no mana to keep her warm in her nightmares.

The Zero runes with which the Lodestar filled her thoughts spoke of all the terrible things that had happened to her and those that might happen to her were she to lose control over the Cursed Element of water.

Baba Yaga gulped hard, using sheer will to fight back those images, reminding herself of who she was and with whom she was.

’I’m not that person anymore, and part of these memories belong to Ahote, not me.’ She thought. ’The cold can still kill me, but only if I allow it to. I am Baba Yaga, the Mother of all Undead, and I’m in the mage tower of my dear friends, Ripha and Epphy.

’Even if I mess up, they will save me. I know that they can and they will!’ She used those words as a mantra to conquer her fears and add one more Zero rune at a time.

The nightmares from her past would then become even more vivid, arousing details that Baba Yaga believed she had forgotten forever and flooding every fiber of her being with waves of bitter cold.

The Zero element she conjured used the Maiden’s fears to affect the water element in her body, and lowered her body temperature from within. The bite of the physical cold reinforced the memories that haunted her, making them seem as real as the day she had lived them.

With each Zero rune Baba Yaga added, all the work she had done until that moment crumbled. She was back to square one and faced nightmares that became scarier while she became weaker.

The cold robbed her limbs of strength as much as fear paralyzed her mind. The almighty spells she knew like the back of her hand were useless in the visions conjured by the Zero element.

The Maiden could only watch as she moved too slowly to avoid the bites of the wild animals. She saw them coming and remembered where every blow would land, but her stiffened muscles refused to obey her commands.

The only silver lining was that the moment panic made her lose control over Dread Magic, the fear and cold faded away along with the incomplete tier four spell.

On top of that, the more Zero runes she conquered, the weaker the hold of the Cursed Element on her became when conjuring spells of a lower tier.

The danger they posed and the dread they instilled in her never disappeared, not even when she conjured the first Zero rune, Jerak.

Dread Magic was akin to a volatile poison that would explode at the slightest jolt, but practice allowed Baba Yaga to become skilled at handling increasing quantities of it.

Meanwhile, Lith had never stopped working on applying the principles of Void Magic to Dread Magic, but to no avail.

’Baba Yaga was right. I don’t need to conjure two elements for my experiments because conjuring a Dread Magic spell also conjures its scattered counterpart. One element cannot exist without the other.’ He thought.

’It should make the connection between them clear, yet no matter what I try, the two little bastards just eat at each other!’

’Even a single drop of stable elements would be enough.’ He thought. ’All I need is a catalyst to start the transformation. Something small that can’t revert the Cursed elements to their natural state and that I can later remove with Domination.’

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